Hemorrhagic enteritis

Hemorrhagic enteritis is a localized acute hemorrhagic necrotizing inflammation that preferentially affects the small intestine. The lesions are mainly in the jejunum or ileum, or even the entire small intestine, and occasionally may also involve the colon. It is a life-threatening fulminant disease with unclear etiology. Its onset is related to factors such as intestinal ischemia and infection. It occurs more frequently in spring and autumn, with major causes including a history of unclean food intake. The disease predominantly affects children and adolescents, with acute onset, manifested as acute abdominal pain, usually starting from the periumbilical region or the upper mid-abdomen. The pain is paroxysmal colicky in nature, or persistent pain with paroxysmal exacerbation. There is fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and foul-smelling bloody stools. Abdominal examination reveals varying degrees of abdominal distension, abdominal muscle tension, tenderness, and bowel sounds are generally diminished. When intestinal necrosis is obvious, systemic toxic symptoms, peritonitis, and intestinal obstruction symptoms worsen, and severely affected patients often develop shock. Treatment for this disease generally adopts medical treatment. The treatment principles are to reduce the burden on the digestive tract, correct water and electrolyte disturbances, improve toxic symptoms, rescue from shock, control infection, and provide symptomatic treatment. Of course, due to its sudden and emergent nature, in addition to medical treatment, there are also many surgical treatment methods. However, as a potentially life-threatening disease, prevention in daily life should be emphasized as much as possible to stay away from the disease.